Lawmakers to tackle budget proposal Monday

Lawmakers are heading back to Baton Rouge on Monday to tackle a budget proposal that would cut $500 million from health care and higher education in Louisiana. It's a plan that would get the more-than $24 billion budget past procedural hurdles.

House and appropriation committee leaders said they don't exactly support the proposed $500 million in cuts to 2014’s budget, but they're looking to get past a requirement about using one-time funding to pay for ongoing expenses. One local lawmaker said the tactic being used is embarrassing.

The House Appropriations Committee meets Monday to continue work on a budget that would cut $250 million from higher education and the same amount from health care funding.

State Rep. Cameron Henry, of Metairie, said there are talks on the House floor that House Speaker Chuck Kleckley and Appropriations Committee Chairman Jim Fannin are trying to avoid a fight over the use of one-time money for reoccurring expenses.

"We have about $550 million of non-reoccurring money for reoccurring expenses in the budget. That's something the administration has been addicted to," Henry said.

One-time funding is money owed to the state from things like sales of state properties or legal settlements.

"An example is the tobacco settlement. We have $120 million going into TOPS that will not be there next year, so if we continue on the path that the administration is taking us now, we'll have a $120 million hole in TOPS next year," Henry said.

A House rule requires a two-thirds vote to approve such type of spending. Henry said House and council leaders are attempting to skirt the rule.

"This is a shell game. They're just going to, I guess, go to members on the committee and say, 'Look, trust us. If you vote for this amendment, which could potentially decimate higher education and the Department of Health and Hospitals, we promise to fix it in the Senate,'" Henry said.

The plan is to push the budget proposal through the House so the Senate can do more tweaking to draft the final version.

"It's embarrassing, if that's the case, for the administration, for the speaker and the chairman that they're trying to have members' duties and roles as being elected members circumvented, so that they don't have to answer tough questions on the House floor," Henry said.

Supporters of the budget plan, which includes the Jindal administration, said without the patchwork funding plan, health care and colleges would see unnecessary and major reductions.

Over the past five years, Louisiana's colleges and universities have seen $427 million sliced from their budgets.